"My Country, Tis of Thee."

As an older, retired person, I tire more easily than a younger man, and as the never-ending moves towards a socialist and completely secular society come almost every hour from Obama and his liberal cohorts, I tire of the fight.

But then I pick up the paper and read again the timeless wisdom shown below, and I realize anew that the battle is not a new one – and that it is endless. If we save this republic, blessed by God - and created and preserved by thousands of brave men and women - it will be done by older people like me who studied history and are not so moved by the demagogues of the moment.

Edward Achorn in the June 2, 2009 Providence Journal (Excerpt)

“AT THE CLOSE of the constitutional convention in 1787, a woman approached Benjamin Franklin and asked what kind of government the delegates had crafted: a republic or a monarchy.

“A republic, if you can keep it,” Franklin famously answered.

The Founders, well read in world history, knew that republics were the most fragile form of government. That is because the vote, while crucial to self-government, tended historically to empower demagogues and special interests who would use the system to loot their fellow citizens. Republics collapsed into dictatorships, maintaining the forms of republicanism for a time, while giving the boldest and most ruthless politicians largely unchecked power. Rome was the classic example.

To shield Americans from that grim fate, the Founders created a federal republic with strict limits on government power, clearly delineated rights of citizens that no one could take away legitimately, and oaths of elected officials to defend the Constitution. The Founders believed in representative democracy rather than direct democracy (such as controlling government through referenda), fearing the power of the majority to impose its will on the minority. Through these means, they created the most successful republic in history.

But they understood that nothing lasts forever, that republics are by their nature brittle things, and that they can break down if citizens lose their passion for freedom and can be persuaded by politicians to cede control over their lives, on the theory that they can get something for nothing, since the government provides goods and services “free of charge.”

Every day’s newspaper offers ample evidence of the difficulties of maintaining a well-run republic — the perpetual, exhausting tug of war between government and the individual, between powerful special interests and the common good, between the will of the majority and the rights of the minority.” Providence Journal